“Ridiculous!” said Bolai. “Those engines constitute our tactical advantage. They are a state secret.”
“The events of the past year should have taught you that your nation no longer has a tactical advantage,” said Hana. “Against our clouds of fire, ten thousand steam engines are powerless. Any future war you may be planning against your colonies is already lost. You incur no further loss by sharing your technological expertise.”
“Am I to assume that you also want the secret of the submarine and the airship?” asked Meijer.
“That won’t be necessary,” said Gilberto. “We have plenty of our own. But there’s something we do want from your king. He will give us,” and he placed a finger on a line in his papers, “his signed admission that the heating of the world was an intentional scheme by the Canutic Empire with the sole purpose of facilitating maritime transit for its harbors in the Arctic. Moreover, the Danish nation will commit to cease all burning in both polar regions and start researching solutions to repair the damage it has done to the world’s climate.”
After pondering his words, Meijer replied in a cautious tone, “That is… not… wholly unreasonable.” He met Gilberto’s skeptical gaze and added, “I promise to speak to my king about this.”
“Will you yield the secrets of your satanic dealings, too?” asked Carvajal. “Or will you continue to hold us hostage?”
“We don’t owe you that answer. The amount of what we owe to you is exactly nothing.”
Carvajal chuckled with disgust. “God will collect what you owe. You will pay in the next life for each spell you have cast.”
Gilberto had hoped to avoid adding any more support to that interpretation of the events, but he couldn’t hold himself. “We have proven that we can cast our spells as close to your holy cities as we please, and the only reason those cities still stand is that we chose to be more merciful than you’ve been to us. We have proven that we can do our dark magic on your holy days, and your god was unable to stop us. That is how things stand between us. You are not here to negotiate, but to surrender.”
Carvajal pulled back his chair and turned to leave. “You will not intimidate us with your demonic sorcery.”
With chilling calm, Gilberto warned, “We still have enough sorcery left for each of your cities.” He hated himself as soon as he launched that threat. He didn’t know for a fact that enough antonite existed in the world, and the last thing he’d said to Neema had been his oath to never let the bomb be used against actual targets, but Carvajal knew none of that, and his words had sufficed to keep him from walking. “If you leave this room without signing our terms, there won’t be a Spain for you to return to.”
Meijer pulled Carvajal back to his chair, doing his best to ignore the repressed laughter in the room. “We will hear your terms.”
Hana took another of her papers and started reading, “We are declaring independence from you.” She ignored the three men’s gestures of dismissal and added, “Those of us who have survived the centuries of your tyranny have earned our freedom by the mere fact that we are still in this world, and you failed to break our spirit. Your empires will retreat back to their homelands, and the colonies will form autonomous governments. All trade with us will be conducted on a basis of equality.”
Bolai erupted in laughter. “You can’t expect us to deal with barbarians as equals!”
Unfazed, Hana continued, “Also, you will forevermore cease to capture, trade, and keep slaves.”
Meijer’s face transformed into a mask of fury and he slammed the table. “That’s absurd! You’re demanding we give up our wealth!”
“Let’s talk about wealth,” said Gilberto. “You come from the Netherlands. Your people used to be a colony, too. You were the first in the world to win freedom from Spain. What kind of wealth did you have back then? You used to be a nation of honest workers, a beacon of high learning, a refuge for victims of the Inquisition. So why aren’t you sitting here next to us? Why aren’t you fighting for our cause? You know the answer. As soon as you were free, you sampled your own bite of empire and found it too tasty to quit.”
Hana spoke next. “We know it may feel like we’re condemning you to ruin. Slave labor in the colonies sustains the entire imperial economy. What we’re asking of you is not that you starve, but that you learn to feed yourselves. We don’t belong to you. If you need to use our resources, or our knowledge, or our work, you’ll no longer be able to just take it. You’ll have to trade with us, and we’ll make sure you do so fairly.”
Carvajal’s voice rose to a shout. “We can’t abandon our interests in the colonies. We can’t throw away centuries of civilizing effort!”
Gilberto’s reply was automatic. “You’re not worth arguing civilization with.”
Bolai jumped to his feet. “I didn’t come here to be insulted.” He turned to leave, and the others grabbed him by his arms.
“No, you came here to surrender,” repeated Gilberto. “Now sit. You don’t get to play the offended party here.”
“How are we even supposed to execute that demand?” asked Meijer.
Gilberto drew out a series of notes. “China hasn’t hesitated to install long-distance communication wires like the ones we have in Likasi, but you Europeans are terrified that it’s going to steal your souls or something, so we’re going to have to do it the old way. Your fastest submarine takes two months to cover the distance from Malaca City back to Copenhagen via Suez and Gibraltar. Once there, you will tell your king to issue a decree of liberation for all slaves in the empire.”
“My transport can’t make that time,” protested Meijer.
“Then I guess you’ll have to fly with your Spanish friend, and I’ll have to trust that you won’t kill each other along the way.” Gilberto consulted his notes. “The speed of communication between Madrid and its remotest colony, which is Guam, is three weeks on your best airship. The Asian provinces of the Canutic Empire are capable of sending word to Hawaii in a comparable timeframe.” He put his papers down and pointed a finger at the delegates. “That’s how long we’ll wait. Your kings have three months to free all colonies and all slaves and prevent us from wiping out your capital cities.”
“That’s enough!” yelled Carvajal. “Such aggressive language has no place in international relations. This is the vilest form of blackmail.”
Gilberto stared at him without the tiniest bit of sympathy. “I will make myself clearer, in case I wasn’t already.” He kept his rage steady as he carefully enunciated each word. “Empires will end. Slavery will end. That is a fact. We have refrained from delivering the punishment this evil cries out for, we are granting you more time than you deserve, and we will destroy one imperial city,” he raised his tone over the delegates’ protests, “for each month after our deadline that even one of your kings has failed to comply, and that goes for every other empire on this planet. Do we understand each other?”
The hall fell silent.
“Good,” said Gilberto. “I hope that puts your precious economies under a clearer perspective.” He prayed for his face to not betray the fact that he had no intention of hurting anyone. “I know you’ll find a way to transmit the same urgency to your kings.”
“That is a fantasy,” said Meijer. “As much as I may sympathize with your plight, I can’t give you false expectations. Our kings will retaliate against this rebellion.”
“Actually, no,” said Hana. “The liberation of slaves will be the last decree they’ll ever sign. After that, they must give up their thrones.”
Bolai spat on the floor. “That is an outrage!”